The Young Gentleman and Lady's Monitor, and English Teacher's Assistant eBook

The arms are sometimes both thrown out, sometimes
the right alone. Sometimes they are lifted up
as high as the face, to express wonder; sometimes
held out before the breast, to shew fear; spread forth
with the hands open to express desire or affection;
the hands clapped in surprise, and in sudden joy and
grief; the right hand clenched, and the arms brandished,
to threaten; the two arms set a-kimbo, to look big,
and express contempt or courage. With the hands,
we solicit, we refuse, we promise, we threaten, we
dismiss, we invite, we in treat, we express aversion,
fear, doubting, denial, asking, affirmation, negation,
joy, grief, confession, penitence. With the hands
we describe, and point out all circumstances of time,
place and manner of what we relate; we excite the
passions of others, and soothe them: we approve
and disapprove, permit or prohibit, admire or despise.
The hands serve us instead of many sorts of words,
and where the language of the tongue is unknown, that
of the hands is understood, being universal and common
to all nations.

The legs advance, or retreat, to express desire, or
aversion, love or hatred, courage or fear, and produce
exultation, or leaping in sudden joy; and the stamping
of the foot expresses earnestness, anger, and threatening.

Especially the face, being furnished with a variety
of muscles, does more in expressing the passions of
the mind, than the whole human frame besides.
The change of colour (in white people) shews, by turns,
anger by redness, and sometimes by paleness; fear
likewise by paleness, and shame by blushing.
Every feature contributes its part. The mouth
open, shews one state of the mind, shut, another;
the gnashing of the teeth another. The forehead
smooth, eyebrows arched and easy, shew tranquility
or joy. Mirth opens the mouth towards the ears,
crisps the nose, half shuts the eyes, and sometimes
fills them with tears. The front wrinkled into
frowns, and the eyebrows overhanging the eyes, like
clouds fraught with tempest, shew a mind agitated
with fury. Above all, the eye shews the very
spirit in a visible form. In every different state
of the mind, it assumes a different appearance.
Joy brightens and opens it. Grief half-closes,
and drowns it in tears. Hatred and anger, flash
from it like lightning. Love darts from it in
glances, like the orient beam. Jealousy, and
squinting envy, dart their contagious blasts from the
eye. And devotion raises it to the skies, as
if the soul of the holy man were going to take its
flight to heaven.

The force of attitude and looks alone appears in a
wonderously striking manner, in the works of the painter
and statuary, who have the delicate art of making
the flat canvas and rocky marble utter every passion
of the human mind, and touch the soul of the spectator,
as if the picture, or statue, spoke the pathetic language
of Shakspear. It is no wonder, then, that masterly
action, joined with powerful elocution, should be
irresistible. And the variety of expression, by
looks and gestures, is so great, that, as is well
known, a whole play can be represented without a word
spoken.